Crater Lake is located seven miles east of the Bogard Rest Area on Highway 44. In 1907, Lassen National Forest Supervisor, Louis A. Barrett, included this lake in his inventory of proposed National Monuments, the other two being Lassen Peak and Cinder Cone. The lake remained inaccessible for years, except for hardy hikers who climbed the mountain. In 1952, the Fruit Growers Supply Company constructed a logging road to the 35-acre lake that is situated in a volcanic crater, on lands owned by the Lassen National Forest. The Forest Service originally proposed to offer summer home sites, but established a campground instead.
The old Fruit Growers barn, June 2, 2015- Photograph by Annie Henriques
Well, can you believe it, it has been ten years to the date that the old barn at the east entrance to Susanville was destroyed by fire. It was built in 1920/21 for the Fruit Growers Supply Company, who were in the midst of constructing their new sawmill/box factory nearby. Continue reading The Old Fruit Growers Barn→
Fire trail V-drag plow, 1929. Courtesy of Fruit Growers Supply Company
Fruit Growers Supply Company’s Lassen Operation, on the surface seemed ideal–abundant timber supply supply, two billion board feet worth. In 1922, Fruit Growers purchased one-half of that billion board feet from the Lassen National Forest, a story in itself. It should be that timber was intermingled on Fruit Growers and Lassen National Forest property, primarily to the west of Eagle Lake. Early on the two had divergent opinions on fire prevention methods. The forest service preferred the slash.burning method wherein tree limbs etc would be piled and burned. Fruit Growers said that method was costly, i.e. $13 per-acre. Fruit Growers adopted fire lnes, that other progressive timber companies had adopted. Fruit Growers created fire lanes that were 100 feet wide and completely void of vegetation, each encircling 100-acre sections of timber. They were formed by a specialV-drag hooked to a 60-Caterpillar tractor which could clear up to six miles of fire lines a day. The lanes not only served as firebreaks, but provided quick access in an emergency.
During the fire season, two crews of eight to ten men worked as fire prevention team. It was their job to build fire lines, oversee brush and slash piling, remove dead snags and maintain the company’s private telephone lines. Telephone “boxes” were attached throughout the forest, allowing for daily monitoring between the logging camps and the mill. The telephone system was also used to report fire or an accident when medical aid was needed.
By the end of 1932, the 178 miles of fire lanes constructed over 26,000 acres had proved very effective. Even though three of the. seven years it took to build them were critical fire years, only 53 acres burned. From 1925 to1940, prevention cost $40,373.54, fire fighting only $7,546.65. During World War II the construction of fire lanes was abandoned.
On April 16, 1921, a grand celebration was held in Susanville for the Fruit Growers Supply Company new mill that was placed into the operation. In evening, a banquet was held for an assorted of company officials and local dignitaries. Fruit Growers General Manager Frank Hutchens stated how the Lassen would be operated. Fruit Growers would conduct selected tree harvesting, whereby 30 percent of the merchantable trees would remain as seed trees. Fruit Growers and the Lassen National Forest Service were working on a selective harvest plan that would allow to operation to continue in perpetuity. They estimated it would take between fifty to sixty years to log their holdings. By that time, the original logged areas would be ready for the second harvest of mature trees which again would take between fifty and sixty years to harvest, and the cycle could continue.
C.E. Emerson, a local merchant and rancher, told the crowd of his reforestation experience locally. Emerson recalled as a child, forty years ago, he helpd plant a tract of pine trees on the family ranch just south of Susanville on Diamond Mountain. Those seedlings, he said, had become a fine stand of pine timber, many of which were 22 to 24 inches in diameter.
Fruit Growers Supply Company mill, Susanville, 1921
Awhile back we explored the closure of the Lassen Lumber Box & Company mill. It was acquired by its neighbor, Fruit Growers. That company purchased Lassen Lumber for its water rights, in case Fruit Growers wanted to convert its mill to a cardboard plant. While that event had never happened, Fruit Growers did operate a cardboard plant in Southern California.
The question posed was whatever became of those water rights. I would assume, and that can be dangerous, that when Fruit Growers sold their mill in 1963, the water rights would have been included. This is where it gets tricky. One can with hold the water rights, and its done more often than one could think. Title companies do not include water rights in their property search. If water rights are in an adjudicated system, like the Susan River watershed, there is. a water master to oversee it. The water master fee is included in the county tax bill. I use of have list of the water users, but I am not sure how I filed it away.
Back of the question at hand. It would be interesting to know who possesses those water rights, since there is no mill, let alone a millpond.
In 1921, Fruit Growers bought a new Baldwin locomotive, that was designated the No. 33. Some where the down line they changed it the No. 2. In 1952 Fruit Growers discontinued railroad logging on the Lassen (Susanville) Operation. In 1955, Fruit Growers announced the closure of Westwood Operation. In 1956, Fruit Growers sold the entire Westwood Operation to a liquidation company Wershow & Weisz. Some Fruit Growers locomotives were included and auctioned off in the fall of 1956. If No. 33 was included, that information would be in my Fruit Growers Westwood file that is in storage.
In 1929, Fruit Growers Supply Company consolidated all of its logging camps into one larger camp, known as Camp 10. It was located thirty-eight miles northwest of Susanville near the bank of Pine Creek. Ten years later, Fruit Growers considered leaving Camp 10 to establish Camp 11 on the east end of Champs Flat, about ten miles northeast. In the spring of 1940 that plan was put on hold.
In the early 1940s, Fruit Growers was awaiting a very important government decision on the Wage and Hour Law–whether or not an employee would be paid for travel time to the actual work site. Travel time between Camp 10 and the logging site was 1 to 1 1/2 hours each day. If the government mandated paid travel time, Camp 11 would be established, but not necessarily at Champs Flat. It would not be until 1948 when the government ruled that employees were not entitled to paid travel time, and the need for a new logging camp disappeared.
In early 1940s, the Red River Lumber Company proposed to build branch railroad logging line off the Western Pacific near Poison Lake with a final destination to Burney. That planned was on hold due the conditions of War World II and subsequent sale of Red River in 1944 to the Fruit Growers Supply Company. It should be noted that the Burney Tract contained estimated two billion board feet of merchantable timber.
Fruit Growers surveyed the railroad line descending off the Hat Creek Rim near Cassel then onward to Burney. In 1949, the Harvey Railroad logging line shut down. The rails were stored Halls Flat near Poison Lake, and that increased the speculation of the pending railroad. Then things got complicated and a new player enter the field the McCloud River Lumber Company. McCloud’s mill was sixty-one miles northwest of Burney. The Company was expanding to the south and had eye on the Burney Tract.
In 1951, Fruit Growers and McCloud drafted a mutually beneficial agreement. Fruit Growers would build the line they had surveyed from Poison Lake to Burney and lease it to McCloud, who would be responsible for operating and maintenance. McCloud would eventually scrap the Poison branch. Instead, McCloud extended its line to Burney and on July 3, 1955 the formal dedication of that line was held.
Fruit Growers Supply Company had another issue besides the housing shortage when they opened their Susanville plant in 1921. Inflation had a been issue not just locally, but nationally. However, Susanville’s prices were higher than elsewhere. There were accusations that the local merchants were gouging consumers to take advantage of the tremendous population growth.
Fruit Growers employees complained. Did they ever. Fruit Growers even hired an undercover detective to investigate. It turned that yes, Susanville prices were high, but the local merchants were not gouging any one.
Fruit Growers Commissary, 1921–Ed Standard
Fruit Growers solution, they opened a commissary. It ws nothing fancy and carried the necessary staple items. The commissary opened on December 12, 1920 and the discount store was only available to Fruit Growers employees. Local Fruit Growers manager, S.M. Bump wrote in a memo “Merchants can exploit all they want.”
Over the ensuing years the commissary evolved and would eventually be open to the public. Its name became Sunkist Grocery. While the store no longer longer exists, the building does. It is now the Lassen Senior Center at 1700 Sunkist, Susanville.
